#Adele Cultural appropriation or appreciation ?

I offer the following definition of cultural appropriation in #DTMH: “Much like understanding racism, the key to understanding what is and isn’t appropriation requires an analysis of power.

Cultural appropriation operates as part of a structural power dynamic
where the ‘appropriating’ actors belong to an advantaged group.
This group systematically extracts the cultural resources of a subordinate group, erasing the subordinate group’s involvement in the process.

The structurally advantaged group becomes the primary
(financial) benefactor of an innovation that was not theirs.” As far as I can see Adele isn’t erasing anyone or claiming this as her own, she is simply participating in a culture she is likely to have grown up in in Tottenham

Most of the responses I have seen from Jamaicans and black people more generally have had no problem with Adele’s hair and outfit ! However there are others who are unhappy with it (it’s almost as if black people don’t always agree with each other).

Mdembe reminds us the African past is characterised by mixing, blending & superimposing. In opposition to custom, he insists idea of ‘tradition’ never really existed & reminds us theres pre-colonial African modernity that has not been taken into account in contemporary creativity

While hair discrimination remains such a big issue for people of African descent I can understand why this is a charged issue

Whichever side of the fence one is one, it’s hardly grounds to drag anyone for a difference in opinion based on different life experiences that lead people to have different perceptions

In a world with a level playing field cultural appropriation wouldn’t exist. Its borne of a reality where the value of physical, material and cultural resources of Africa (& Diaspora) have been extracted to the benefit of Europe and the impoverishment of Africa & her descendants

A more pertinent question here might be to ask why Britain’s biggest soul singers are all white ? #culturalappropriation